Did you know that the CSWR has one of the most complete collections on Manuel Areu, a nineteenth century composer who traveled the globe and was instrumental in bringing zarzuelas to the Southwest? Zarzuela is not just a 26-point Scrabble word (both the authors are champions at Words With Friends). The zarzuela was an important hybrid popular at the turn of the twentieth century that combined popular music, dance, and lyric opera.

Portrait of Manuel Areu

Areu's papers are housed in the Center and include handwritten musical scores, a vast array of promotional posters from around Latin America and the Caribbean, and correspondence that reveals how the collection almost never materialized, literally, as it was recovered from an Arizona dump (see box 67 in the Collection for more!). As part of the collection's recovery, in 2014 the University of New Mexico Honors College launched an interdisciplinary and international digital project, The Manuel Areu Project. Collaborating with the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra among others, students, faculty, and musicians transcribed scores and even performed some of Areu's work.

Because our CLIR Fellow will work on Latin American projects, we are excited to think about the next steps for this amazing collection. Are you interested in the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI)? Do you want to examine what 19th century musical compositions looked like? Contact the Center or stop by DISC to learn more!